Geriatric Screening as an Educational Tool: A Case Report

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSEThe aging population is growing in the United States. Currently, 1 in 8 Americans is over the age of 65,1 with a projected increase to 1 in 5 by 2030.2 In response to the increasing aging population in the United States, the American Geriatrics Society3 and the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) Section on Geriatrics4 (now known as the Academy of Geriatric Physical Therapy) released essential competencies for practitioners working with older adults. The American Geriatrics Society established general competencies designed to be used by practitioners in a variety of health care disciplines that work with older adults.3 The APTA Academy of Geriatric Physical Therapy's Essential Competencies in the Care of Older Adults at the Completion of the EntryLevel Physical Therapist Professional Program of Study4 (see page 91 of this issue) serves as a guide for accredited physical therapy education programs in teaching students how to provide care for older adults. The establishment of the essential competencies4 provides a framework for physical therapist education programs to ensure that their students meet competencies upon entry into the profession. Currently, the literature lacks evidence of innovative methods that graduate physical therapist education programs are using to meet these essential competencies.4Didactic and laboratory classroom experiences are essential initial components for teaching physical therapist students to work with an aging population. With a classroom foundation, clinical experiences allow students to hone skill sets with a variety of patient populations, including older adults. Experiential learning provides a bridge between the classroom and the clinic and serves the important purpose of reinforcing classroom learning5 and increasing cultural competence.6 Experiential learning, when conducted in communities and settings that are underserved, aligns with the Commission on Accreditation in Physical Therapy Education (CAPTE) criteria and the APTA core values related to social responsibility and advocacy7,8 and provides the opportunity to develop social responsibility.9 Using experiential learning as an adjunct to classroom education about the older adult population could be an important component in developing the essential competencies4 for working with older adults. This case report is a description of an experiential learning activ- ity for first-year physical therapist students to supplement didactic coursework that could be easily replicated by other physical therapist education programs.The Widener University Institute for Physical Therapy Education (IPTE) has older adult content embedded throughout the 3-year didactic curriculum in various courses that emphasize musculoskeletal, neuromuscular, integumentary, and cardiovascular systems in various practice settings, including acute care, outpatient, and skilled nursing facilities, covering such topics as therapeutic exercise intervention for the older adult, motor control and motor learning, health literacy, multisystem aging, and in-depth selected topics in aging.10 The courses with geriatric content focus on a number of different essential competencies for the older adult. In the first-year physical therapist education, students take a 2-credit "Lifespan Adulthood" course. This course focuses on the broader psychosocial, motor, and cognitive aspects of aging, as well as broader subjects such as ageism and successful aging, and serves as an introduction to topics that will be explored in greater depth in other coursework. The course also places an emphasis on health screening for older adults. Students are taught that early detection of physical performance deficits, depression and cognitive changes, and appropriate intervention by the health care team can help to interrupt loss of physical function that older adults can experience.11,12 Students learn to advocate for appropriate levels of physical activity to promote the health and wellness of older adults. …